


still, with hearts beating

by vxpur



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: F/M, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-25 17:14:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30092433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vxpur/pseuds/vxpur
Summary: a collection for my characters dirt and lily. some will be one shots, others will have multiple chapters.





	still, with hearts beating

**Author's Note:**

> please read the notes at the beginning for any trigger warnings that might apply to that chapter. also, im not that great at writing, so please forgive my mistakes haha

Wind rushed between the forest, carrying distant noises to Dirt as he walked in silence. The trees were all unfamiliar, as he had arrived in the country barely a week ago. Peering over, he looked at his new traveling partner, who had stumbled across him in a rather agitated way. She said her name was Lily. She was an elf of some sort, but the only thing that gave it away was the smell of her blood that lay dry down the side of her leg. A tan encompassed her body, and her skin peeled at her shoulders. He watched as she brought a calloused hand up to wipe sweat from her forehead and then flick her disheveled hair away from her face. She suddenly was squinting back at him, and for a moment, her eyes expressed the same intensity as they had when they first noticed each other. It passed barely a second later, until it was just her bright blue irises studying him. He looked away, at least until she started talking again.  
“So, where exactly are you from? I mean, obviously it’s the marshlands... I guess I mean to ask how you’re so tall?” She inquired, motioning to his entire body. His arms sagged from the weight of the bags she had him carry. Filled with trinkets that she would use to pay him for his help, she had said. The only things she carried herself was a bow and some herbs she claimed would help deal with different pains. There were a couple dozen black tipped arrows clinging to a strap on her back, but the bow itself intrigued him. She had it wrapped around her torso, string still taut against her chest, the carvings on it reminding him of something he had seen before. A jagged blade hid in a belt pouch, resting just below her waistline. It would undoubtedly still gleam if she held it up.  
“Born.” He finally replied. She huffed at him. He only looked back.  
“You expect me to believe that you were just born this way?” Her lips curled upwards a tad, and he realized he hadn’t seen her smile yet. “Okay, fine. I’ve just never met anyone like you though, so are you mixed?”  
His gaze quickly left her face, but he felt her smirk dispel nonetheless. He stared down to his feet, observing the imprints he made underneath them with each step. He went to nod, but not before she spoke up again, “It’s nothing to stress over. At least your parents were both somewhat the same.” She sighed, straightened up suddenly, and fixed her eyes back on the road ahead.  
“My father was not an elf. They needed to keep it a secret. Needed to keep me a secret, so he clipped my ears when I was young to make them look like his.”  
She hesitantly brought a hand up to her cheek, then slowly pushed the blonde strands away to let him examine her ear. He bent down a little, eyeing it. Up close, she didn’t look elvish at all to him. Her ears still seemed off in a way, like they were snipped just a little too short. Not that anyone would be able to tell if she kept her hair down. He noticed the frizzy knots in her golden locks next, matted together in weird positions as a result of long since dried blood. Next, he discovered freckles forming at her cheeks that cascaded all the way down to her collarbones and burnt shoulders. The shirt she wore had clearly seen better days, it fit loose on her frame and the ends were tearing at the seams. He peeked down to the hide armor that clung to her legs. It had barely protected her back while they fought together, and that much was apparent by all the nicks and developing bruises that dotted along her calves and knees.  
She reached up and knocked him between his horns. He bared his teeth for a second before shooting a look at her. She still wasn’t facing him, but a grin now pulled at her mouth.  
“Those aren’t my ears now, are they?”  
He snorted, and irritably watched ahead along with her.

It wasn’t long before the night closed in around them, and they soon decided to settle down until morning came. He could smell rain building up in the clouds above them, and she could too. She swung her belt off, tossing it into their small pile of goods as Dirt breathed into the fire. Making her way closer, she plopped next to him on the ground. He eyed at her while she stared into the fire, an unreadable expression momentarily plastered on her face. He listened to her quiet breathing, his eyelids feeling heavy from sleep. He quickly straightened up when he noticed her turn to him.  
“Thank you for helping me.” She rubbed at the back of her neck with one of her hands, and wasn’t really meeting his gaze. “If you want, you can just go. I don’t really want any of that stuff we took, so you can have it as your payment.” She let her arm flop back into her lap and sighed.  
“The only thing I needed was that man’s death.” She looked at him, anticipation glistening behind her eyes. He simply grumbled to himself for a moment, then rolled onto his side behind her. She could feel him fussing around as he tried to get comfortable, could almost sense the rise and fall of his chest once he finally stilled. Yet she didn’t move for a while, just watched the fire crackle and cast shadows on the ground. Eventually sleep did call to her as well, and she was too tired to resist it. She fell back, turning a little so that she was parallel with him instead of landing on him. Even partially curled up, he was taller than her. He had to be a few feet taller than any human she had ever encountered. She still wondered why.  
Too curious to resist, she propped up on one elbow and explored what the fire allowed her to see. His skin was just as dark as the inks she wrote with, but some of the scales down his sides shone differently under the light. Iridescent almost. She scoured over his shoulders, down to his chest where three jagged scars laid. They seemed decades old, but she knew of how deeply one would have to cut in order for it to look the way it did. She swallowed and tore herself from her thoughts to look up to his face. Horns jutted out around his chin and cheekbones, small and worn down compared to the ones on his skull. Earlier she had noticed the razor sharp spines that traveled all the way down his back, stopping just short of the middle of his tail. A thin membrane connected them together, like a fish’s would. Looking down to his armor, she giggled. It hardly fit him, just barely covering his lower stomach and cutting off near his knees. She couldn’t quite tell, but it didn’t look like anything attached the front piece to the back, like her armor did.  
She felt something swipe at her bare feet, and she jolted upright quick enough to make her head spin. She watched as his tail dragged away from her before casting him a menacing glare. He sneered, and just blinked at her for a second before saying anything.  
“Ears.”  
She scoffed as she laid flat on her back, noting the playful rumble in his chest, just loud enough for her to hear. It wasn’t like any of the other noises he had made earlier, not like the roar he let out when a knife cut into her backside or the annoyed heaves he made while having to lug things out of their path. This one was much softer, and she listened to it fade when she turned to face away from him.  
Ultimately, sleep called to her, and then to him.

Lily slowly opened her eyes and looked over to see the remains of their fire a couple feet away. Beyond that, she noticed the sun was beginning to clear the horizon, the misty air fading away. Birds quickly fluttered through the trees and called out as if excited for the much anticipated sunrise. Then she peered over to Dirt, who was laying on his stomach now, his spines pressed flat against his back. She sighed and lazily straightened herself upright.  
“No.” Dirt groaned quietly.  
“It’s literally daybreak.” She yawned out, pointing to where the sunlight would soon be chasing away their sleep. He eventually let out a huff and lifted himself up to start stretching, watching her out of the corner of his eye as she stood and made her way over to their pile of junk. She bent down a little and began ruffling through a sack for what he presumed would be their breakfast.  
“There wasn’t a whole lot of food back there. Think maybe they were waiting on some poor travelers to come by to ambush them. I did take some meat, but we don’t have time to start another fire. I have to get back home as soon as I can.”  
Dirt was next to her in seconds, pushing his mouth into the bag and pulling out the slab of venison with his teeth. He swallowed it whole as she gawked at him.  
“Dude, that’s raw.” She mumbled, returning back to the bag to look for something she could eat.  
“You think I got this big having to wait for my food to be cooked?” He replied, his words not quite enunciated and rather slow to come. He leaned back into a squat when she chuckled and shook her head for a moment.  
“No, and I think that’s the most you’ve said since we met.” She stood back up, leaving the sack on the ground. She moved to slide her shoes on and pick up her weapons, loosely tying her belt around her waist. They were close enough to a town to not worry about being attacked. Dirt grabbed the rest of their bags and hoisted them over his shoulder, towering over her a little more than three feet. She placed her hands on her hips as she stared up at him. Inspecting his face, she looked at the blood from the night before. It clung to his cheeks and maw, traveling down past his neck. She looked at his hand that held onto the bags next, claws virtually stained with crimson as well.  
“We need a bath, huh?” Dirt nearly missed the melancholy in her voice. “That is, unless you’re wanting to separate now?” Her gaze fixed to the ground at his feet. He blinked at her a few times, thinking. Then he glanced up to the newly arriving sunshine. Lily’s hair radiated from the light, still messy and mangled from earlier yesterday, but shining nevertheless. He sighed.  
“I’ll go with you.”

**Author's Note:**

> these characters mean a lot to me, so i hope you all enjoy them as much as i do.


End file.
